Netherfield’s Living Room
(Please note: links may be affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation to help fix up the house, but it won’t cost you any more 😊)
The living room was the first room we redid downstairs. Because of my personality type, I knew I would need some areas that were calmer, more put-together. I was right.
When we looked at the house, there was a loveseat sitting in the way of the opening to the parlor (which does have pocket doors!), their TV was in front of the three windows, they had another couch on the wall to the left, and there were several plants in the room. They didn’t have a large area rug in the room, and there was some obvious damage to the finish. The floors in the kitchen, parlor, and living room were redone at some point, possibly in the ’40s, according to the thin oak flooring that was really only popular then (according to my resources). We were told the house was probably built in the ’40s but we doubt that. Looking at the way things were made, we’re really thinking it was built in the late ’20s to early ’30s. Another feature of the house that I LOVE are the light switches in this room and the parlor. They’re the push button kind with mother-of-pearl. We plan to keep them in these rooms, however, currently there is no light fixture connected to the one in the living room.
Thankfully, the right corner here was the only place in the house that had actual wood paneling (not including the weird floor in in the dining room). Once we got to work in here, Andrew pulled the paneling off to find there was drywall under it!
Once upon a time, the house had two chimneys, but they no longer go out the roof, and there’s only one area that has an open hole into the chimney. Can you spot it?
For a while, I wasn’t sure what color I wanted to paint the living room and dining room. Last summer I found this paint color online that I loved. It was called Woodlawn Blue from Benjamin Moore, but we had no reason to repaint something in our apartment, so I hoped I would remember it if we ever moved. Well, when we did, I knew right where to start looking. The best thing about this color is that sometimes it looks blue, sometimes green, and sometimes even a warm gray. But when I got a color sample of it, it didn’t look as magical as it did in the pictures. Still, I chose to paint our bedroom that color, and I fell in love with it! The sample didn’t do it justice, nor do any pictures I’ve ever taken of the rooms we’ve painted that color (which is now three. The living room, our bedroom, and the guestroom/office). I especially love the dark color of the wood contrasting the light blue walls. The wood finish can have an orangy tone to it, and the blue really helps counter that!
I have more information about the paint we used in the post about the dining room!
Here’s the living room floor after we scrubbed it on our hands and knees (thanks, Wednesday night group!), we cleaned it with a special oil-free cleaner (twice because it was still so dirty), and then I applied a coating to help semi reseal the flooring. It wasn’t in the worst of shape and most of it we knew wouldn’t be seen or abused once the furniture was moved in and an area rug was down.
The living room while Andrew was working on the dining room. Notice the lovely puzzle table Andrew made for me one year for Christmas!
I knew the rug we had been using was too small for the room and not the look I was going for, so I kept my eye out for a rug I liked more, knowing it was going to be an investment. Something I decided about creating this home was that I would not cheap out on the items I really liked. Since we don’t have children yet, this has been feasible with keeping some watch lists (thank you, Honey!) and being okay with using things we have that don’t fit the space until I find what I like and we have the funds for it.
I found this rug on Paola Merrill’s Instagram or Youtube. She had it in her home, and I loved it. I was nervous to buy a rug online because what happens if it’s not what I expect or they send the wrong one or it starts falling apart after I vacuum it twice, so seeing someone else have it in their home being used gave me the confidence to…put it on a wishlist and wait for finances to settle down a bit. And then the price slowly crept up and up, so after we got our tax refund and all the fun things that happen in April, I decided at the end of May to bite the bullet and buy it.
Maybe that was partially because I was a bit annoyed at Andrew buying another car, to which I kept saying, “That could’ve been a rug!”
So I bought the rug.
It came in earlier than anticipated, and I was so excited that lil old 5’2″ 90lbs me moved this 9’x12′ rug from our back porch into the living room, and back into the parlor because I figured it would be better for it to lay out flat. I unrolled it and it was everything I hoped it would be! I especially appreciate that it’s made from wool and cotton, not “indeterminable material,” like one of the rugs we bought years ago that’s in our room.
If you can’t tell from the above picture, Sasha also approves of the rug.
Andrew surprised me a couple of days after I got it by putting it in the living room for me. It is even prettier where it belongs!
There was a pretty large area on the ceiling in front of the big window that required a lot of Andrew’s attention before we could paint this room. We could tell it had been patched before, so we wanted to try to fix it better so hopefully we don’t have to fix it again. Andrew did so well that it’s mostly not even noticeable, so that is great!
Amazon links for our pillow covers:
Microfiber loveseat cover (While fur does stick to it, Sasha’s white undercoat doesn’t stand out on it, which makes my life easier!)
I knitted the pink shawl that’s on the back of our loveseat. I love the texture and pattern of the lacey stitches against the solid color of the loveseat.
All three of our couches/loveseats we got second hand! The chaise above was my first Valentine’s Day present from Andrew, bought from the same friend he got the leather couch from. Our end tables were both gotten at auctions, and as mentioned above, Andrew made the puzzle table for me.
I have not yet been able to find curtains I like for the living room. Since the windows are most likely original to the house, they can be pretty drafty, so I hope to find some before wintertime!
For more information on how we did the work in this room, see my post about the dining room (linked below) because we’ve used the same methods throughout the house
Here are more rooms to check out in our new house!